Looking at Dean Gaffney now, it’s hard to believe he almost died less than five months ago.

Returning to the Midlands – at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – for the first time since the horror car crash, the former EastEnder looks fit and well – and there’s barely a mark on him.

He suffered serious head injuries and underwent major emergency surgery on his skull after his Mini Cooper slammed into the central reservation of a dual carriageway in Derby. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

He pulled through but then he was terrified that the scar on his forehead was so bad he would never work again.

He admitted he kept thinking: “Oh my god, my career is my face.”

But now the three-inch-long scar has faded to the extent that it’s barely noticeable. The 35-year-old father-of-two says: “It’s amazing how quickly scars heal. At the time, it felt like my whole face had come apart. People looked at me and were horrified.

“I will have a scar for life but it has really toned down a lot. They might want to cover it up for TV work, but the doctors told me not to put make-up on it for the first year to allow it to heal properly. Thankfully there’s no call for that in theatre work.”

Dean is appearing in Murder In Play, the first in the Summer Play Season at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre. He was starring in another Ian Dickens’ production, A Murder Is Announced, also with his current co-star Gemma Bissix, when he crashed his car.

Dean jokes about the comedy whodunnit: “I only found out who the murderer is last week and I’ve been doing it for six weeks!

“I think I prefer the stage to television work. If you’re an athlete you should be on the track, if you’re an actor you should be on the stage, that’s how you learn your craft.

“As an actor, I’m more out of work than I am in, though usually not for too long. The longest I’ve been unemployed is six months.

“The trouble is, I can’t work in somewhere like Sainsbury’s. Not because I’m too good for it, but because I’ve been on television. It would just be impossible. You have to try to work within your craft somehow.”

But the man who played street sweeper Robbie Jackson did, famously, try to become a spy. A national tabloid revealed last year that Dean had applied for a job as a mobile surveillance office with MI5.

The article lead to much poking of fun at Dean, with his EastEnders co-star Adam Woodyatt describing him as “more Johnny English than James Bond”.

Looking back, an incredulous Dean now says: “I couldn’t believe that it made the front page. I mean, it’s a nothing story.

“I was driving home one night and heard an advert on the radio, asking ‘Do you want to earn £75,000 a year, could you be a spy?’.

“I sent off the application form and heard nothing back. To see them blow the story up like that was partly annoying and partly funny. We’ve bought four copies and I keep meaning to frame it and put it in my bathroom.”

Dean began his acting career at 15 when he was cast in EastEnders. A year previously, he’d won a scholarship to train at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. “EastEnders gave me a good career for 11 years. It’s a show that evolves and sometimes they bring people back, so never say never for Robbie’s return.”

Dean’s twin daughters, Charlotte and Chloe, are about to turn 17, but the prospect of them dating horrifies Dad. “It’s very hard for me. I grew up a lot before my years and I know every trick in the book. I just hope they don’t meet boys that were like me!”

* Murder In Play comes to Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre from June 25-29. For tickets, ring 01902 429212 or go to www.grandtheatre.info.